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Robocopter Responds To Natural Language Direction

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 17 of March , 2010 at 2:30 am

This little helicopter is able to understand you when you tell it what to do. No pushing buttons, no using special commands, you just tell it where you want it to go and (eventually) it goes. Of course, I’m sure it required a bit of work to define where “door” and “elevator” and “window” are, but it’s a much more intuitive way to control a UAV that works when your hands are full, when you’re stressed (think military), or simply when you have no idea now to control a UAV.

I don’t have much in the way of other details on this project, besides the fact that it probably comes from the Robust Robotics Group at MIT, and possibly from someone who lives in this dorm. How do I know? Well, one of the research goals of the RRG is “to build social robots that can quickly learn what people want without being annoying or intrusive,” and this video is on the same YouTube channel. ‘Nuff said.

[ MIT Robust Robotics Group ]

Comments (4)

Category: Research

4 Comments

Comment by Alan Parekh

Made Wednesday, 17 of March , 2010 at 12:51 pm

That is one heck of a cool project. I would be curious to know the total cost of this robot and what it would have cost if the military had commissioned it.

Comment by Joey1058

Made Sunday, 21 of March , 2010 at 7:11 pm

MIT is producing some scary cool stuff. As lomg as it’s still in development. Can you see directing your robocar in the front seat, and a bunch of giggling teens in the back yammering about whose *turn* is was to play? CRASH!

Comment by Sovi

Made Wednesday, 7 of April , 2010 at 5:15 am

This post increased my knowledge… very interesting..thank you..

Comment by biapandcomp

Made Tuesday, 14 of December , 2010 at 7:38 am

“I would be curious to know the total cost of this robot and what it would have cost if the military had commissioned it.”
Something I doubt …

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